Disrupted Flight Gets Escort Back to London

Fighters' sonic boom alarms London area
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 23, 2019 10:57 AM CDT
RAF Jets Escort Flight Disrupted by Passenger
A Jet2 flight was escorted back to Stansted Airport.   (Getty/GordZam)

Two RAF jets were scrambled to escort a plane heading to Turkey back to London, where a passenger was arrested on suspicion of assault and endangering an aircraft. Jet2, a British airline, described the 25-year-old woman as "an extremely disruptive passenger," per the Guardian. Police were swamped with calls Saturday evening reporting a "huge bang," as one man called it, that London area residents thought might be an explosion. The noise was a sonic boom caused by the Typhoon fighter aircraft descending into Stansted Airport's airspace, officials said, per CNN.

The Sun reported that passengers, who said it was clear that the woman was intoxicated, said she rushed the cockpit 45 minutes into the flight and threatened to kill them. "I was terrified," one woman said. "There’s nothing you can do, you can’t escape." Members of the cabin crew and passengers subdued her. "She had six people sitting on her," a passenger said. The plane landed safely, and officers removed the woman. (More diverted flight stories.)

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